Among all the tablets showcased by Acer at CES 2012 there was also the Iconia A200, one cheap tablet we’ve been mentioned quite a few times here at AllTouchTablet.

    If you thought there was no reason to get one maybe the hands on at the end of this post will convince you it’s a good investment, especially considering you’re getting a top Android tablet (considering last year’s Tegra 2 baseline) for as low as $330 (8GB version, add $20 for the 16GB model).

    Overall impression (and it’s not just me) is that the Iconia A200 looks and feels better than last year’s A500. The only difference is in the lack of a back facing digital camera, but I’m sure you can  get past this minor inconvenient. The back features a nice textured surface. The two speakers do a great job, even in noisy environments, and the RING launched is a nice customization that allows you to access the search menu, 4 shortcuts (which you can select), your browser favorites and the volume slider by just tapping the RING icon on the bottom of the screen. [complete specs]

    Acer Iconia A200 with RING UI

    Acer Iconia A200 with RING UI

    You also get a full size USB port on the Acer Iconia A200, so you can connect a keyboard, mouse, game controller of storage device if you like. It will ship this month with Android Honeycomb 3.2, but Acer is committed to offer an update to 4.0 ICS very soon. I’d watch closely this tablet if I were looking for an affordable Android tablet, or snatch the quad-core ASUS EEE Pad MeMo 370T for $249.

    Nice textured back for Acer A200

    Nice textured back for Acer A200

    Here’s the promised hands on preview that shows the RING user customizations and gives you a better look at the whole package:

    [source]